Thurston is the first-person narrator and protagonist. Lovecraft does not provide personal details, such as age or physical appearance. Thurston is an archeologist and lives in Boston, Massachusetts. He is the great-nephew of Professor George Gammel Angell, who has died without a direct descendent, and the premise of the story is that Thurston has been contacted to settle Angell’s estate.

Thurston’s defining traits are rationalism and skepticism. His reaction to finding Wilcox’s tablet among his uncle’s papers is to assume that someone was trying to fool him with a fake artifact. That belief persists through the first two acts until he visits Wilcox. Thurston never admits that Wilcox’s dreams were inspired supernaturally; he believes that Wilcox heard about the cult secondhand and his impressionable, artistic nature translated them into disturbing dreams. He believes Wilcox is an impostor due to his gullibility rather than malice. At the same time, Thurston begins to suspect his uncle’s death was not an accident, showing that he is being drawn into believing in the cult.

As the narrator of a gothic horror story, Thurston relates his emotional reactions to events in vivid detail. He colorfully expresses his dread and terror whenever he makes a fresh discovery about the Cthulhu Cult.